


Just a Training Exercise

by Anonymous



Series: Forever and Ever My Brother, Hail and Farewell [1]
Category: Shadow Hunters - Fandom, The Infernal Devices Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Claustrophobia, Gen, Panic Attacks, Will is claustrophobic and Jem helps
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-09
Updated: 2017-09-09
Packaged: 2018-12-25 21:03:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,075
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12044229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Will and Jem have to complete an exercise as a part of their training to become stronger Parabatai. Except,its never that simple is it?(Or Will is claustrophobic and Jem helps)





	Just a Training Exercise

The exercise should have been simple. It  _ was  _ simple. The Parabatai were split up into two separate sides of the training facility, which was made up of a maze of 25+ small tunnels. Each tunnel had been designed to block out light, so the insides were completely black. Their job was to find each other in the tunnels using only their voices to communicate, and then make it back to one of the sides.

It was simple.

And yet, it somehow went so wrong.

*

Will was staring at the tunnels warily, having just been put on his side of the room. He and Jem had done their traditional Parabatai handshake before they had split off, and Will had made a point of hitting Jems hands slightly harder than necessary.  He had to make sure that Charlotte (who he knew was watching) didn’t get any ideas about him being “A normal kid who just needs friends” or however she put it. Jem, for his part, just grinned and hit Will back twice as hard.

He looked down at his hands now and smirked, he would fight anyone who honestly thought that Jem wasn’t strong, they were still tinted red. 

The tunnels were daunting, much more then they should have been. There were four openings at the start, all which seemed to move into nothingness in different directions. Each tunnel was a little over 60cm tall, which meant that crawling was the only option. He knew he and Jem would have a slight advantage in the height department since they were the youngest, and Jems stature had always been on the smaller size, and yet he couldn’t stop staring at the tunnel and imagining himself snug inside. 

“Ready!”

Will straightened up with a start, looking with a jerk towards the trainer who had just yelled. He realized that everyone else was in their starting positions on the wall, and quickly moved towards them. It was just an exercise. They’re just tunnels. You just go in, find Jem, and get out. He kept repeating that mantra in his head as the trainer started to count down from 3.

_ Just find Jem, _

3

_ And get out _

2

_ Just find Jem, _

_ 1 _

_ And- _

“Go!”

And he ran.

*

“Will!?”

Jem yelled for nearly the tenth time. His voice echoed through the black emptiness of the tunnel he was in, and he sighed. Once again the only reply he received was the yelling of the other Parabatai. He heard what he recognized to be Daniel’s joyful cheer as he likely found his Parabatai and started his way out of the tunnels.

The point of the exercise, he knew, was to focus on being able to differentiate your Parabatai’s voice from any and all other noise. He had assumed it would be rather simple, since Will wasn’t known to be particularly quiet, and had expected to find Will decently quickly by following the sound of his friends constant banter. And yet, other than Will’s first call of “Gabriel is a DICK!”, he had heard nothing from the other boy. The worst part was that he knew that they could excel in this, just as they did in every exercise. Ever since they had become Parabatai the bond he had felt with the other boy had become incomprehensible, even to Jem himself. It felt as if they knew everything about each other, and yet Jem was acutely aware that there were many things about Will that he did not know.Jem continued his way through the tunnels, making turns at random and hoping he would somehow stumble upon his oddly silent Parabatai. 

The lack of response from Will became more worrying as the time passed, and Jem slowly noticed himself picking up speed as he checked each corner he passed for the familiar figure of his best friend. He had been crawling in the darkness for what felt like hours, slowly tuning out the other Parabatais voices and doing his best to try and hear some sort of sign of Will when he heard a quick intake of breath. He stopped quickly, listening even more intently now, and heard the sound again, except this time he could hear the shudder that seemed to crawl through the other person’s throat. He moved quickly towards the noise, listening intently as the breathing seemed to increase in speed with every passing second. FInally, Jem found himself beside a familiar figure.

“Will!?”

*

_ Can’t breath _

_ Can’t move _

_ Too much heat too much touching too manywallstoomanytoomuchtoomanycan’tcan’tcan’t _

The thoughts seemed to cascade through his mind at lightning speed as he tried desperately to close farther in on himself, anything to get away from the walls that seemed to be getting closer and closer with every second. There was no difference between having his eyes open or shut, and he didn’t know which his eyes were anymore, only that there was only nothingness around him and yet every bit of nothingness seemed to be another  _ wall.  _

Every breath seemed to catch in his throat, and nothing could come out. Not a gasp, not a word, only the quick shuddering attempts to get something in his lungs that seemed to never stop. He couldn’t think about where he was anymore or why he was there he just knew that he wanted out  _ out  _ **_OUT._ ** And yet at the same time he knew he was never getting out, that this was never going to end and he was going to die here, he was going to die and never see anyone again and he was going to die die  _ die die **die di-** _

“Will?!”

A voice cut through the cascade like the blade of a seraph, shattering his thoughts. Will tried to open his eyes, but he couldn’t because he was simultaneously squeezing them shut. Instead he tried to reach towards the voice but then he remembered that he couldn’t move and he felt his breath hitch again. A thin hand suddenly landed on his shoulder and he jerked, ramming his arm into the wall before he jerked away from it in a strange move of whiplash. The hand moved away quickly and Will took the opportunity to fold impossibly closer into himself in an attempt to block out more touch and the heat that came with it. His anxious breath returned as his thoughts spiraled back down into the cascade from before until the voice broke through again,

“Will, Will it’s Jem. Its JEM! You’re okay, I won’t touch you again but you’re okay.” 

The voice was familiar, and Will desperately searched his mind as to why. But he couldn’t latch onto anything and his thoughts were too scattered to think clearly and it was all just too much an-

“Will! Will STOP! I’m going to keep talking okay? That’s all I’m going to do, I’m going to stay with you and just talk okay?”

Will latched on to the voice and tried to use it to tether himself back to reality. It was as if he was gripping a ladder and was trying to pull himself up, and with every word from the voice each step got easier. The voice stayed true to its promise and continued to speak nonsensical sentences to his ears, and slowly the voice took shape. He suddenly realized how he recognized it and why and the realization hit him like a ton of bricks,

“Jem.” He gasped out   

Jem’s voice sounded relieved as he responded,

“Yes, yea it’s me Will. Can you breath with me?”

Will had forgotten about his breathing, and was immediately acutely aware of how fast it was. He felt his eyes shot open as he searched the darkness for Jem’s face, finding his shape a couple centimetres ahead of him. He tried not to panic himself more as he did his best to copy his friends breathing pattern.

“Breath in 1-2-3-4, breath out 5-6-7-8, breath in 1-2-3-4, breath out 5-6-7-8.”

This continued as Will’s breathing slowly started to  match Jem’s, and he started to gain back feeling in his limbs. As he breathed he experimentally reached out his arm, happy to see that he could now, and grabbed Jem’s shoulder, doing his best to smile at his friend. The result was likely an odd grimace, but luckily Jem couldn’t really see his face anyway. He needed to somehow convince the other boy that this wasn’t a big deal and definitely did not need to be brought up to anyone else. Before he could say anything however, Jem spoke,

“We need to get out of here Will, okay? But I can’t help you if I don’t know what caused you panic attack. Do you know what happened?”

_ Panic attack. _ Will rolled the word around his thoughts and shook his head resolutely,

“It’s nothing Jem,” He said, his voice shaking a bit, “Definitely not something as bad as all that. I’m just not a fan of small spaces. So, lets go!”

Will turned away from his friend, starting to crawl down the tunnel to his left while attempting to not touch the walls around him. He felt Jem's hand grab his ankle and he flinched away from the heat it brought, but stopped moving nonetheless,

“Don’t be an idiot Will, I know it’s your strong suit but we don’t have time for it right now.” Jem sighed, moving his hand away when he felt his friend’s flinch, “The others have already found each other and have likely made it out so they’re going to question what kept us. We need to get out quickly, which means we need to avoid setting you off again.”

Will felt his face heat up in shame and he looked down, even though in the darkness it made no difference he still couldn’t help the habit. He knew Jem was right, as usual. The faster they got out the less questions would be asked when they got there. But he didn’t know how to explain what happened or why it occurred. He had always hated small spaces, hated being put in the bathroom for a time out, hated being surrounded by large groups of people, so he had always just  _ avoided  _ it. He’d never been stuck in a small space for long enough to get panicked, he had always just focused his energy on getting out as quickly as possible. This wasn’t supposed to happen, he wasn’t supposed to be weak enough to be taken down by something as petty as this. Heroes in stories always had a weakness, but it was never “Can’t be in small spaces or will freak out like a small child”, it was always something that in the end could be turned into a strength. But there was no strength in this. He shook his head. None of this was going to help them get out,

“I don’t like small spaces, and being...hot? I don’t know.” He started, shaking his head faster now as if in attempt to clear his thoughts. He felt his breath hitch again

“Will, stop” Jem said quickly, this time not touching his friend, “Okay so you don’t want to feel crowded, I’ll make sure not to touch you. I’ll lead instead, and u can touch my foot so you know I’m in front of you, okay?”

Will nodded, until he realized that Jem couldn’t see him so he made a grunt of agreement

“Do you know which way you came from?” Jem asked

“No,” Will replied, “But i didn’t get far from the start before…”

Jem nodded, then thought for a moment.

“Well I came from behind me, and I’ve been moving through the tunnels for a while. That  means the exit is probably towards you.” He deduced, before grimacing, “So, I’m going to have to move past you in order to lead. Is that okay?”

Not giving himself time to think about what that would detail Will agreed, moving as close to the wall as he could before telling his friend he could move. Jem moved slowly, one hand in front of himself as he made his way past Will. He started to speak as he went, hoping that Will would be able to focus on his voice again to avoid panicking. When he finally made it past he glanced behind himself to see wills shadow, shaking a bit but breathing steadily.

“Are you ready to go?” He asked

“Yea,” Will replied, getting ready to move, “Lets go.”

  
  


  



End file.
